One in Five
by Dusty Paws
Summary: Four in five Slytherins may be total jerks but the one left over might just surprise you, as first year Gryffindor Jasmine Curtis is about to find out. Oneshot.
1. I: One in Five

Just a bit of a oneshot for a Gryffindor friend to break the monotony. As always I do not own anything that you may recognise, such as Hogwarts, the Standard Book of Spells Grade Two, or The Boy Who Lived.

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><p>The first half of the evening had passed in a blur of colour and noise. The gentle weight of the tattered hat on her head, the echoing in her ears at its cry of 'Gryffindor!' and the answering cheers from the table of red and gold. She'd been clapped on the back more times than she could count as she joined that table and had joined in the cheers as more new Gryffindors joined them. Even one called Harry Potter.<p>

She'd heard the stories about Harry Potter. Who hadn't? Even though she was only a half-blood her mother had made sure that she knew all about the Dark Lord and The Boy Who Lived. But it was one thing to hear the stories, and it was entirely another to be sat across the table from him, in full view of that lightening bolt scar.

The long line of Gryffindor first years had followed their redheaded prefect to the portrait of the Fat Lady and listened in rapt attention to the password: 'Caput Draconis'. She had wondered what it meant but had quickly decided that it didn't matter as she took in the soft warmth that was the Gryffindor common room.

The evening caught up with her as she stood there with the other first years. The excitement as they crossed the lake in little boats, the anticipation as she waited for her name to be called, the sickening worry that she would be made a Slytherin even though she was half-blood, and the sheer relief and utter glory of being made a Gryffindor. She couldn't stop smiling.

"What was your name?" a voice broke her from her thoughts. Tuning back in to the present she saw that there was a pair of redheaded boys standing before her, identical in every way. Somehow she was at the forefront of the first years, the others more than a full step behind her. She wondered what she'd missed.

"Jasmine," she said after a moment. "Jasmine Curtis."

"Well Jasmine Curtis," one of the boys replied. "I'm Fred."

"And I'm George." Their blue eyes sparkled in the firelight, shining with mischief planned. "Congratulations, you're this year's champion."

Jasmine turned around to the other first years, finally realising that they'd sold her out. Some of them had the grace to look a little ashamed for it. Her eyes sought out Harry Potter who she'd thought better than this only to see another redheaded boy's hand resting on his shoulder, restraining him from stepping forward.

A little faith restored, she turned back to the twins, a grim smile on her face. She was a Gryffindor; she wasn't just going to slink away from a challenge. Lions didn't just walk away when their courage was called into question and she was a lion now.

"What do I have to do?"

The twins grinned at each other for a moment before launching into her instructions. All she had to do, according to them it would be easy, was to steal the list of banned objects from Mr Filch's office without being caught and bring it back to the common room. They wanted to make some changes to it, they said. But she wouldn't be going alone; the so called 'champion' from last year would be going with her.

So, minutes later, Jasmine was walking the corridors of Gryffindor Tower with a surly boy called Cormac McLaggen who looked like he'd rather be anywhere but with her. The office was on the ground floor and, with the moving staircases, it took an unreasonable amount of time for them to get there. By that time McLaggen was looking pale.

Jasmine's heart was trying to beat its way out of her chest but she was unwilling to give up, so she darted from the shadows that hid them, to the door she thought hid the office. The door creaked loudly and she cursed, turning her head wildly to see if anyone had been drawn by it before slipping inside. The door closed behind her, nearly trapping her robes. She heard the lock turn.

"Well, lookee here: an ickle first year Gryffindor." Jasmine cursed under her breath as her eyes got used to the sudden dark. It wasn't the office she'd found; it was the entrance to the dungeons and there was a quartet of second year Slytherins just beyond. She reached into her robes, feeling for her wand.

"All alone, little Gryffindor?" a blonde boy asked snidely. They were all holding their wands and she knew she couldn't fight off all four of them, especially since McLaggen couldn't get to her and her only route of escape had been locked behind her. But that didn't mean that she couldn't try.

/

Helena sighed, resting her head on her hand as she flicked over the page of Standard Book of Spells Grade Two. She should have been in bed but she couldn't sleep. And when she couldn't sleep she read. But that night the green lanterns of the Slytherin common room were giving her a headache and every spell she came across was familiar. That's what she got for reading her textbooks the day she got them, she supposed.

The common room was empty except for her; everyone else was asleep. She raised her wand and muttered "Avifors." turning a nearby quill into a small grey bird. The bird circled the room once and then settled onto her desk, pecking at the woodwork.

She turned the page again, flicking her wand lazily at the bird that promptly turned back into a quill. Another page turn, followed by another, and finally another before she slammed the book closed.

Helena got to her feet and straightened her robes. If she couldn't read anything from her trunk then she'd have to go to the library, curfew be damned.

She kept her wand in her hand and slipped out of the hidden stone door that served as the entrance to the common room. After barely a glance she moved purposefully along the corridor, pretending for all that she was worth that she was supposed to be there.

The dungeons were cold at night and damp all the time, so after one year she was accustomed to the steady drip, drip, dripping of water from the ceiling falling to the floor. What Helena wasn't accustomed to was yelling echoing through the corridors at night. She picked up her pace towards the noise and gripped her wand tighter, hoping that she wasn't about to come across teachers berating a pupil for being out of bed. That would be bad.

She rounded the final corner to see a group of four boys hassling a younger looking girl. The girl was tall, dark haired and dark eyed, her wand pointed straight ahead at one of the boys. The boys were only laughing at her, but Helena was slightly impressed.

"Lumos." Her wand tip flared with blue light, lighting the badges on the boys' robes when they turned. All four of them were Slytherins and, now that she could see their faces, she recognised them from her class. She cursed them as cowards under her breath, advancing on their little group.

"Hey, Hel," one called to her. Randall Verian, he wasn't the brightest candle in the candelabra, but he had a penchant for gathering followers. Sure enough the other three were Richard Shye, Theron Stark and Zaul Faraday; his more favoured companions. She could have left them be but that door was the only way towards the library, and she _had_ been complaining that she was bored.

"Verian," she replied shortly, advancing on them, "What do we have here?" Now that she was closer she could see that the girl was a Gryffindor first year. She shook her head; boys like those four were what gave Slytherins such a bad name. And it was girls like this one that gave Gryffindors such a good one. Anyone else would have run but she had stayed and held them at wand point.

"First year Gryffindor on a mission, we were just thinking how to deal with her when you arrived. Any ideas?" Verian answered her smoothly; his pale green eyes cool in the blue light from her still raised wand. She lowered it with a sigh.

"Bloody hell, Verian, why don't you just let her go?" The Gryffindor girl caught her eye when she started in surprise. It didn't seem that she had been expecting help to come from the fifth Slytherin. Helena smirked, folding her arms. Four in five Slytherins may be total jerks but the one left over might just surprise you. And Helena liked being surprising, her parents could attest to that much.

"What?"

"I said let her go, Randall. Go back to bed and try not to yourself expelled on the first day." Verian's group looked to each other, unsure what to do. The girl should have been trying the door while they were distracted but, for some reason, she was just watching them. "Nox." Helena put out the light.

"Lockwood, my father would not let me be expelled for upholding tradition." Verian pointed his wand at her now. Helena rolled dark blue eyes.

"Your father's reach doesn't extend to Hogwarts, and neither does mine. McGonagall, on the other hand, is rather fond of her Gryffindors."

"I'm not afraid of the old bat; Snape could take her."

Helena sighed. She was beginning to get tired of speaking with them; maybe she could try a Leglocker Curse? Or a full body bind, she'd been dying to find a 'volunteer' to try that one on. Her wand shot angry red sparks. She was feeling adventurous; maybe a Stunning Spell?

"Are we doing this the hard way?" she asked in the most innocent voice she could manage. "I think I would enjoy the hard way." Verian looked back at the girl who was still holding her wand towards him, then spat at her feet.

"She's not worth the bother. Come on boys, we'll leave her to Lockwood." Verian somehow made it sound as if he'd won their battle of wills but Helena didn't care as he led his group away, back into the shadows of the dungeons.

"Well that's a shame; I really would have enjoyed the hard way." She murmured, twirling her wand through her fingers. She shrugged and then turned back to where the girl was still stood. "Ah, well, on you go." The girl didn't move.

"I could've taken them," she said.

Helena laughed. "Sure you could, all four of the blighters." She had laughed but the girl's fiery brown eyes told her that she was perfectly serious: she had been going to try. The Sorting Hat had really hit that nail on the head. "What brings you all the way down here then?"

"An initiation for the year." Helena had heard it done before but she didn't think that it had ever resulted in fighting another house. Not even Slytherin.

"Dunderheaded morons sent you out alone?" The girl shook her head, sending long brown hair flying. The animation brought a smile to her face and she decided that it had been a good idea to help her out.

"No, but I don't think he stayed after the door got locked." Gryffindor Tower was on the way to the library.

"I'll walk you back if you like?" There was that surprise again. The surprise that a Slytherin could actually do something helpful, the surprise that was laced with a healthy dose of suspicion. "I was headed that way anyway."

"I need to get the banned list from Filch's office." It wasn't a 'yes', but it wasn't a 'no' either so Helena smiled and raised her wand.

"Once more unto the breach dear friends," she quipped, aiming at the lock. "Alohomora."

/

Jasmine looked at the piece of parchment in the blonde girl's hand wondering if there was a catch. The other girl was a Slytherin after all and, for all she knew, she'd set up the ambush just to make Jasmine trust her. She hadn't even told her her name.

"Who are you?" The Slytherin girl quirked an eyebrow, still holding out the list of banned objects to her with an insistent hand, it was clear she wanted to move on.

"Helena Lockwood, second year Slytherin, your rescuer and partner in crime for one night only. Are you going to take this or not?" Jasmine took the parchment slowly and placed it in the pocket of her robes.

"You're crazy," she said.

"That too," Helena agreed. "But most pure bloods are. I think it's from all the in-breeding our families have to do to stay, well, pure." Blue eyes looked up at her from the step behind. "You?"

"I'm a half blood," she replied instantly as they crested the main staircase. She had been right about McLaggen having left her behind, but she wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. Helena was certainly better company, but she was also a Slytherin.

"Good to know but I can hardly keep calling you that. There are people who object to that kind of thing." Jasmine felt a light flush rise onto her cheeks but Helena simply kept walking towards Gryffindor Tower, oblivious.

"I'm Jasmine. Curtis," she said, hurrying to keep up. "First year, perfectly sane."

"Well, that's a pity." Jasmine didn't understand her. Every time she thought she had some handle on the Slytherin girl's thoughts they would twist away into something completely different. "We're all mad here, you see. It must be horrible for you to be the only sane one in the castle." She didn't know what to say to that.

"Jasmine!" a voice called out to her from further up. She tilted her head to see a head of bright red hair poking over one of the banisters beside a darker head of hair. A pair of redheads joined them a second later. Fred, George, the first year who had to be their brother, and Harry Potter. She smiled. Helena was smiling too. They met the four Gryffindor boys at the bottom of the staircase that let to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"That idiot McLaggen came back without you," one of the twins said.

"We thought you were a goner for a bit there," the other finished.

Jasmine reached into her pocket and pulled out the list, handing it to the twins, still smiling.

"Blimey, she did it," the small redheaded boy said. "But what's with the Slytherin?"

"What Slytherin?" Helena replied, perfectly deadpan. "I don't see a Slytherin."

"You led her back to the common room." The boy's blue eyes were accusatory even as Harry put a hand on his arm to try and calm him. Jasmine appreciated the gesture, even though it didn't seem to work.

"Yes, Weasley, because no one's ever even _dreamed_ that the Gryffindor common room could be in _Gryffindor_ Tower," Helena hissed, then rolled her eyes. "Anyway, this is your stop, I'm off to the library." And with that, she left; heading back down the steps and through the nearest door. Jasmine watched her go with a smile.

"What happened exactly?" Harry finally spoke to her as they filed through the portrait. Jasmine thought of the five Slytherins she'd met and decided that, maybe, just maybe, they weren't _all_ as bad as they said. But to Harry she simply smiled and said;

"Nothing much."

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><p>You can review if you like.<p> 


	2. II: Quidditch

Well, this took a mite longer than I expected -.-' I blame the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack and various phone calls. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Anyways, happy rest of Valentine's to my Sunshine. Anyone else can just have a nice day :)

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><p>It was the first Quidditch game of the school year; Gryffindor versus Slytherin. The Great Hall was abuzz with chatter about it and Jasmine was sure she had seen the Weasley twins taking bets one whether Harry Potter was going to survive it.<p>

Because Harry Potter had been made Seeker for Gryffindor, the youngest in a century if Hermione Granger was to be believed and it was always wise to believe the witch; she was very rarely wrong.

So Jasmine sat with the other first year Gryffindor girls, listening to them chatter about the match and wonder how Harry was going to fare. She was silent, watching the team in their crimson and gold robes eat breakfast and coach Harry on what he was going to do.

"What do you think, Jasmine?" Hermione's voice in her ear pulled her attention back to her half-eaten breakfast. The other witch was sat with between the team and the girls; she'd recently become friends with Harry and Ronald Weasley after the incident with the troll at Halloween.

"About what?" she asked. Hermione rolled her eyes when she realised that she hadn't really been listening to a single thing that she'd been saying. But in her defence Hermione did have a tendency of taking the roundabout way to the point. It wasn't her fault she'd fazed out somewhere around the mechanics of fire burning without air, was it?

"About this." The bushy-haired witch pulled a jam jar out of her robes proudly. Inside the glass container was a merrily burning blue flame. Entranced, Jasmine put out a hand to touch the jar, sure enough it was giving out a little heat. "Do you think it'd work for keeping a few people warm out there?"

"Definitely," Jasmine replied, removing her hand. She could still feel the heat against her fingers. It was certainly an impressive piece of magic, well above first year level she'd be willing to bet. "Yeah, it's brilliant."

"Thank you," Hermione gave her a wide smile, positively glowing from the praise. "Oh, we should get down to the pitch; we don't want to be late."

Jasmine tore her eyes from the bluebell flame to look around the hall. Sure enough the Gryffindor team was filing out of the double doors, the rest of the house trailing behind them. It appeared that Ronald had waited for Hermione though, she noticed as they stood to join the crowd.

Helena settled onto one of the wooden benches of the Quidditch stands with a sigh. She sorely missed the fire in the common rooms and had absolutely no idea why the matches were compulsory for students to attend. Surely if one had no interest in it their time would be better spent studying or something?

She sighed again and reached into her bag for a dog-eared copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. If she was going to be forced to attend then she would at least be entertained whilst she did. She flicked to the page on redcaps and started to read.

'_Redcaps are found most commonly upon battlefields, but also can be found wherever there has been blood spilt upon the ground. The caps that give them their name is said to be dyed by that very same blood…'_

"What are you doing here?" A half-familiar voice pulled her from the page.

She blinked, looking around her, and was surprised to see the stands all but full. Unfortunately everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time and she could see no one that shared her predicament. Finally she looked directly beside her to see a brown-haired girl with a red and gold Gryffindor scarf tied around her neck.

Helena raised her book slightly. "Reading." The Gryffindor shook her head.

"I meant _here_, in the Gryffindor stands." Jasmine, her name was Jasmine. Helena remembered her now. Below the match was just beginning to kick off, she watched both teams, green and red, fly up to nauseating heights.

"Still reading," she answered again. "At least I _was_ until you found me."

"You're a Slytherin in the Gryffindor stands; I could hardly miss you." Jasmine folded her arms and sat herself on the bench beside her.

Helena smiled to herself, conceding the point before returning to her book. She flicked the page until she found the chapter on kappa.

'_A bowl-like depression on the top of a kappa's head holds the water that is essentially it's life force one it is away from the water of home. If a kappa is tricked into bowing to its prey, and the bowl is emptied of its burden, the kappa is…'_

"Who do you think's going to win?"

Helena lifted her head from the book again to look out over the field. Lee Jordan was gleefully telling everyone what was going on as one of Gryffindor's Chasers scored through the centre hoop.

"Whoever catches the snitch first I suppose," she replied carefully, wondering whether the girl was going to keep speaking to her, or whether she would be free to return to her reading.

"Do you play?"

"At home occasionally, when my brother makes me." And that wasn't very often. Usually Helena managed to fob him off with a game of wizard's chess or exploding snap, anything to get her out of flying on a cleaning instrument.

"Oh." Conversation died again, but Jasmine fidgeted, keeping her distracted.

Helena watched her for a moment, shaking her head that as she realised that the Gryffindor had effectively alienated herself from her fellow Gryffindors to talk to a Slytherin. The thought brought a slight smile to her face.

"Do you always sit in the Gryffindor stand? And do you always read through the matches?" Jasmine's eyes were fixed on the game still so she didn't see Helena roll her eyes as she closed her book, sliding a bookmark into place.

"Not usually, no. But yes, I generally read. I'm horribly rude like that." She smiled. She usually sat with her own house, or rather she had through her first year, but, for some reason, she had gravitated towards the Gryffindor stand.

"Foul!" Jasmine's voice was lost in the outcry from three houses worth of people but it was clear as day in Helena's ear.

She looked away from the other witch to see one of the Gryffindor Chasers on the ground. A moment later Madam Hooch agreed with the outcriers and awarded Gryffindor a penalty shot. The quaffle simply glided through the left ring and the game went on.

"Filthy, cheating Slytherins," a male voice shouted from behind her.

"Don't mind me," Helena quipped, reaching for her wand. "I don't take offence that easily." Nonetheless she subtly angled her wand towards the boy, thinking of an appropriate spell.

"What are you doing?" Jasmine's hand around her wrist forced her to lower her wand and abandon her focus.

"Hexing a heckler," Helena replied smoothly, deciding upon a Jelly-Legs curse.

"You shouldn't." Jasmine seemed adamant and her vice-like grip on her wand arm certainly helped. "I'll never talk to you again if you do." _That_ earned her a quirked eyebrow; they'd only spoken twice in two months and neither conversation was genuinely friendly. The threat shouldn't be anything that stopped her. Nonetheless Helena lowered her wand and stowed it in her robes.

"Fine." She didn't know why she'd let Jasmine get her way but the smile from the first year somehow made it worth it. Jasmine gasped. "What now?" Helena asked, tuning her attention back into the match.

"Harry."

Helena tilted her head back to look higher and saw Harry Potter high above everything else, his broom bucking. She blinked and he fell, hanging on only by the tips of his fingers. Brooms weren't supposed to do that; they went through rigorous spell tests just so that they didn't do that. Not of their own accord anyway. Someone had to be doing it. Someone in the stands was trying to kill the Boy Who Lived.

Jasmine looked from the barely hanging on Seeker to the grass so far below, then back again. There was no way he would survive that fall, even with all the Quidditch armour he was wearing. Why had they let him ride a faulty broom?

"What's happening?" she asked, hoping that someone nearby had an answer because a broom shouldn't try to buck its rider off. It just shouldn't.

"Someone must be cursing the broom," Helena said. But the other girl was watching the boy; she was scanning the crowd with laser-like blue eyes as if she could tell from there who was doing it.

"A Slytherin?" Jasmine said, wincing when she heard her words; she kept forgetting that Helena was a Slytherin, as if the green and silver scarf around her neck wasn't enough of a reminder.

"More likely an adult; I doubt a student would have the power." She wondered how on Earth Helena was staying calm. Harry could die any minute, but her companion sounded as if he'd only skin his knee.

The broom bucked again.

"Can't you do something?"

"Hello, I'm a twelve year old girl, have we met?" There was a definite bite in her voice that time, and a flash in her eyes. Jasmine took that as a 'no'. Helena looked at her and the sharp glint in her eye softened. "He'll be ok; look up there." Jasmine followed the line that her arm made to the tallest box. "Dumbledore's up there and he won't let Boy Wonder die, ok?"

"Ok." She didn't know why but she believed her. Maybe it was because it was such a convincing argument, but convincing arguments didn't dispel irrational fears, did they?

A cheer went around the whole stadium as Harry somehow managed to clamber back onto his broom, and went shooting off after the snitch and the Slytherin Seeker. He was just a red blur now, diving for the floor, but he was in perfect control. She heard a collective breath of relief from every Gryffindor. Helena returned to her seat with a smile.

"Told you so."

Slytherin lost the match the second that Harry Potter spat the snitch out of his mouth and the whole of the Gryffindor stands burst into raucous cheering. Helena looked to the Slytherin stands to see how they were taking it and the answer was not well. She smiled, caught up in the exultation of the Gryffindors and returned her book to her pocket.

"We won," Jasmine said, excited after her first Quidditch match. She wondered if the Gryffindor had any inclination to play. Oliver Wood would be leaving in a few years time. Then she wondered why she cared in the first place.

"Yes you did, Sunshine," she said, deciding not to question the origin of the moniker. She let herself be swept up in the mass of students leaving the stadium, somehow managing to keep her feet under her and following Jasmine closely.

"I'm sorry you lost." She was sure she had heard her wrong but, when they stopped just inside the Entrance Hall Jasmine repeated herself. Helena shrugged.

"Don't be; the better team won."

"We did, didn't we?" The younger girl beamed proudly and held out a hand. Helena took it, shaking her head.

"Are you always so humble?" she asked jokingly. She was beginning to like the seemingly fearless Gryffindor girl despite their opposing houses, and herself.

"Yup," Jasmine popped the 'p' unnecessarily. "I'll see you next Quidditch match; maybe you guys can win at least once before the season's out." She flashed a cheeky grin before darting towards the staircase to catch up with the rest of her house, leaving Helena by the doors.

"Yes, you will." She'd take a book with her, of course, but she didn't think she'd read it. She had something far more interesting to entertain her now.


	3. Christmas

"Merry Christmas to me," Jasmine murmured blearily as she opened her eyes. She wiped the remnants of sleep from her eyes and rolled over to look up at the Gryffindor red of the canopy above her bed.

The pale sun streamed through the window, lighting up the empty dormitory; Hermione, Parvati, Lavender and the others had all gone home for the holidays. Jasmine could have gone too, she almost wished she had, but she'd chosen to stay at Hogwarts.

It wasn't that she didn't miss her family, she did, she even missed her little brother, Samwell. But her family were spending Christmas with her grandparents. Her _muggle_ grandparents who had no idea about her being a witch and attending a school for magic. It was just so much easier for everyone involved if she spent her first Christmas at Hogwarts, at Hogwarts. It didn't stop her missing them though.

She sat up, pushing the quilt away, to see a small pile of presents at the foot of her bed. All wistful thoughts of home were driven from her head as she reached for the first red-wrapped parcel.

Four books, two pairs of socks, a jumper, a stuffed lion and more boxes of sweets than she'd ever be able to ear later Jasmine headed downstairs, into the Gryffindor Common room.

"Happy Christmas," Harry called with a wide grin. He was wearing an emerald green jumper over his pyjamas and looked far happier than she'd ever seen him. She smiled back and returned the sentiment.

Ron swallowed whatever it was that he was eating. "Merry Christmas."

Jasmine walked over to sit in one of the overstuffed armchairs near them.

"You're wearing odd socks," Ron said.

She looked at her feet; one was encased in yellow and the other in purple and grey stripes. It was a habit that she'd had since she was small.

"Yes, I am." She caught sight of the books between the boys and frowned. "What are you two up to?" She knew they weren't doing homework; they never did their homework before it actually _needed_ doing, besides, the first years hadn't been given any homework to do over Christmas.

Harry and Ron shared a glance before Harry started to speak. "We're trying to figure out who Nicolas Flamel is." Jasmine quirked an eyebrow; the name wasn't ringing any bells with her either.

"Why?"

Ron nudged Harry and shook his head. The Boy Who Lived looked uneasy for a second and then shrugged.

"Does this have anything to do with why Hermione snuck into the dorms the other week looking like she'd just been running for her life?" She asked all innocence. At the surprised looks she gave them a shrug of her own. "I'm a light sleeper. Have you looked for anything on him in the library?"

"Everywhere except the Restricted Section." Ron looked bored at just the memory of all the looking they'd done and picked up a Chocolate Frog from the table, biting off a leg before it could hop away.

"Want me to take another look around? Fresh eyes and all that, might find something." She was nearly sure that Hermione had scoured every single page in the library with the boys, but hey, they could've missed something. Right?

"Sure, that'd be great," Harry grinned, "We'll catch up with you at lunch?"

"Sure." Jasmine stood up, walking towards the portrait hole. She heard her name and turned back again.

"Nice jumper," Ron smirked, pulling at his maroon creation.

Jasmine's Nan knitted jumpers every year; it looked like someone in Ron's family did the same. Hers was a dull shade of red too. She smiled and finally left the cosy room in favour of the draughty corridors.

Helena ordered her dark knight forwards to batter an unsuspecting pawn upside the hand and then drag him off of the board. She watched carefully as the knight returned to his square, already looking to head off her opponent's next move. As soon as her opponent got back from the bathroom that was.

"Where is he?" a voice from behind her dragged her attention from the board, making her twist in her seat to see a familiar brown-haired Gryffindor staring at a bookshelf with determined eyes.

"Bathroom," she quipped to get her attention. Jasmine turned, frowning.

"Nicolas Flamel's in the bathroom?" Helena almost laughed at the bewildered look on her face; she shrugged instead, offering the other girl a seat with a wave of her hand.

"It's a possibility. Why are you looking for him?"

"Just a project." Jasmine took the seat with a soft sigh. "I've been looking for over an hour and can't find a mention of him anywhere." There was a glance toward the Restricted Section, but somehow Helena didn't think he'd be in there. "Merry Christmas, by the way."

"Merry Christmas, not going home for the holidays then?" It was a subject change and they both knew it, but she didn't call the Gryffindor on it. It would take up more effort than a Christmas morning had.

"Mum and Dad are taking my brother to our grandparents for a bit. They're muggles." Helena understood, even from that brief explanation, why she had stayed. It was easier to not go than have to lie about your entire life to family. "What about you?"

"She's siding with the losing team." A boy cut them off, taking the seat opposite Helena and moving a white bishop across the board to threaten one of her rooks.

"Jasmine, this is my twin brother, Edmund. Edmund, this is Jasmine." His dusty blonde hair was shorter than hers, messier too, but their blue eyes were the same, and when they were younger they had been near identical. Now it was easy to tell them apart, not least because where her robes were adorned with the green and silver snake, his bore the yellow and black badger.

"He's a Hufflepuff," Jasmine said.

"Hence why he's the losing team," Helena replied, urging her queen forth to take care of an invading pawn. "And I can hardly abandon him now can I? I had to share a womb with him after all." One of her rooks was broken in two and pulled off to the side.

"Being a Slytherin is a family tradition. Me making it into Hufflepuff didn't exactly endear me to our father."

"Home's like a battlefield when they're both in it," Helena offered. She shifted one of her own pawns forward into a position to protect her queen. "Chess only with less pieces and more breakages."

Jasmine looked between the two siblings carefully, noticing the differences between them. Edmund's hair was much shorter than Helena's, and sticking out sticking out wildly in every direction. His eyes were the same shade of blue but the teasing glint wasn't there. Then there was the fact that one wore yellow while the other wore green. She would be willing to bet that a pure blood family would've preferred even a Gryffindor to a Hufflepuff.

A few more moves were made on the chess board, she couldn't tell who was winning but she did hear Helena curse under her breath. She suddenly remembered why she'd come to the library in the first place.

"Do either of you know who Nicolas Flamel is?"

"Creator of the Philosopher's Stone. Turns metal to gold and makes the Elixir of life. Handy little thing, apparently." Edmund answered her without even looking up from the board. "Check." Helena cursed, aloud this time.

"Seriously, Ed? You've been playing terribly all morning and now you're showing me up in front of a friend. Really?" Her brother's only answer was a half smirk and another piece being dragged from the board.

She'd just been called Helena's friend. She was the friend of a Slytherin. That felt weird. Not good weird and not bad weird. Just _weird_. But then again said Slytherin was the twin of a Hufflepuff so weird was to be expected.

She checked her watch, it was nearly time for lunch and she had to meet Harry and Ron. "You two going down for food?"

"Once I've beaten her," Edmund said, grimacing as one of his bishops was dragged bodily away by Helena's one remaining knight.

"We could be here a while yet, you go." Helena smiled as Jasmine stood from the table, armed with information and made to leave. "Jasmine," the Slytherin called after her. She turned to see a wand aimed at her, a second and a muttered spell later there was snow falling from the library ceiling, settling in her hair. "Merry Christmas."


End file.
